Death's Master

Starred review from October 11, 2010
Strange and wonderful, mythic and erotic, the second in Lee's acclaimed Tales from the Flat Earth (originally released in 1979) is every bit as fantastical as the first, Night's Master. Love and death are intricately intertwined with sex and immortality in a series of stories stretching across centuries and uncharted lands. Narasen, leopard queen of Merh, conceives a child with a dead man to thwart a curse. Her gender-swapping child, Simmu, is raised by demons and destined to fight Death. Invulnerable prince Zhirem is betrayed by love and set on the road to obtaining vast power. Kassafeh, reluctant guardian of a vast treasure, holds the key to immortality. These and other stories of desire and destiny play out to surprising, fascinating conclusions. Lee's prose loops and swirls with elegant, archaic, sensual grace, constructing a unique blend of fairy tale and modern myth that hasn't lost any of its power after 30 years.